Glenn Reynolds reports that it was well received. I missed it when it aired last night and in case you did too, here it is. The fact that 95% of us live off the farm and wouldn’t know a horse if it bit us doesn’t, for me, take away the appreciation for a well crafted production.

There were several ads last night that went into “statement mode” where the name of the product was secondary to the message. This was one. I liked it. Liked the statement. Loved Paul Harvey’s voice (if I had to guess, 99% of the viewing audience wouldn’t have a clue who Paul Harvey was).

our whole group … 20 people…thought the farmer ad by ‘dodge’ [now called ‘ram’ i guess] was brilliant and we were going nuts trying to recall what voice it was mimicking … and finally someone came up with it… paul harvey.. but what was up with baltimore taking a safety with 11 seconds left, leaving a 3 point spread, rather than punting and having a 5 point spread? turned out not to matter..

No, Og, the $8 per gallon figure was derived from an old price support system dating to Roosevelt’s time which would have been returned to by default had Congress not passed the new farm bill, which in turns supplies its own subsidies. Propping up prices by our government does not produce lower prices, which kinda makes sense, if you think about it.

It was a great commercial, and great for selling cars. But the images don’t paint a real picture of farming in this country today. Dept. of Ag. estimates less than 1% of the American population work on farms, and most of them work for corporations like ADM. And I’m sure a large portion of them are illegal immigrants. Although we like to think that the people in this commercial represent the average farmer in this country, the truth is that it is a Mexican immigrant working for a company. But, they are selling a fantasy after all!

99% of all 4-wheel SUV’s never leave the pavement, 95% of all visitors to our national parks don’t go farther than 150 yards from the road, and 100% of all residential exercise treadmills start gathering dust 6 months after their purchase (I just made that statistic up, but it’s true). Fantasy and human beings are joined at birth.

fair enough! i think i’ll take the made in america (tx) toyota tundra over the dodge ram – at least those ads are about what the truck can do as opposed to some abstract distortion of an ad (probably dreamed by the same crop of metrosexuals in NYC or San Francisco)

Corn farmers are responsible, along with our politicians, with bringing us ethanol and thus enriching themselves at our expense and starving the world’s poor, so they get no respect or sympathy from me, conglomerates or just plain old bib-overall wearers.

Edgewater –
The Ravens made the smart call and took the safety. They could run the clock down next to nothing, lose a couple of points and still make a punt from the 20 yard line with only a couple of secnds to go, thereby leaving the 49’rs no time to make a play. Brilliant move to assure them the win.